Gora had been the first person who taught me how to sleep all day, and wait for the stars to rise. He’d truly been a good person to learn from, and I swore I became lazier because of him.
Unfortunately, Apple didn’t like him the second she saw him, and put some kind of spell around him. The fire balls around him spun and burned anyone who approached him. I swore I’d never seen someone get so traumatized without doing anything. He even began crazily running towards the people in black attacking our sect!
At this moment, I knew bringing Apple was the wrong choice, but I still placed Jay down in the broken-down house before a few men flew across the sky and landed in front of the sect.
Apple, seeming strangely on guard, alerted me to be careful, and thus I went to grab some dead armor from one of the people she’d killed. The floating men looked at me funny, before laughing, and tossing an invitation into my hand.
I’d never been so shocked in my life.
“what does it say?” the totem couldn’t read in my pocket. “I can’t understand it if you don’t read it!”
“It says I’m wanted. I’m worth 20,000 heads.”
“Wow, you’re worth almost as much as me!” Apple smiled, pulling out her letter. “I knew we were meant to be best friends the moment I failed to eat you!”
“So, question. What is this for Apple?” I wanted to name her something better, but couldn’t. “Do we get 20,000 heads to keep?!”
“No! It means we’re worth the weight in gold of 20,000 heads! Well I mean you! I’m worth 21,000 heads!”
“Ridiculous! I should be worth more heads! Totem, who do I have to see to increase my head count!”
“You’re both the worst pair to arrive since Barnie and Claud.” He meant it. “How about you just cultivate like I’ve been asking you to.”
“Wait, can you hear him?” I asked Fairy, and she nodded her head.
“Yes, can’t everyone understand the voices of nature?” She really thought it was nature, so I showed her the blindfolded totem.
“Very nice to meet you! I’m the reason he’s alive!”
“Oh, that’s a shame? Well, it used to be a shame but I like him a lot now. Like A LOT! He named me Apple!”
“I would’ve called you Fairy,” I digressed as the people around us slept, or laid dead. “Now, shall we go get more heads to add to our total?”
“No, you two! Absolutely not! How about you go get a mission from the Sect Leader? Otherwise, how can this place increase its rank?”
Do I smell a plot? I wondered, finally feeling fulfilled. “Alright! It’s time for a grand adventure! Let’s go find Gora!”
Gora, of course, slept so soundly I couldn’t find him for two hours. I almost thought he was dead, lying in a pile of bodies, but he hopped up and opened his eyes, taking the straw out of his mouth.
“You… you found me! Please don’t hurt me!”
“You’ve forgotten me again, Gora. I’m your eleventh disciple. You named me an outer sect disciple.”
“Oh right. You washed off your face. Wow, you look handsome.”
“Thank you.” First genuine compliment of my life. “What’s for dinner?”
“Wait, you came here for a reason!” Totem said, shaking in my pocket. “Ask him about a mission! We need to increase the rank!”
“Oh, right! Gora… Where is thy mission! Tell me so I may bloom forever more!”
“What?” Gora scratched his head. “I’m old kid. Say something I’d understand please?”
“How do I raise my head count?”
“What? Why would you want to get taller?”
“No, how do I help the Sect.”
“Oh! You mean a mission!”
“YES!” We had our first successful communication. “What do you want me to do?!”
“There is a wise old man who said for every tree cut there is a thousand papers of wisdom to sell. Go cut down 10,000 trees and contemplate the clouds. Make it up to the 3rd Heavenly Stage while you’re out there!”
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“Okay, I shall never disappoint you!” Who am I kidding. Of course something horrible would happen! However, I gave Gora a pat on the back, and found Jay humming in the forest attempting to cut down a set of steel looking trees.
Something didn’t seem right.
Were these the trees?
This should be an easy job for me, right?
Well, picking up an ax, I started hacking at the vertical towers of cultivation wood and began strengthening my muscles with every swing! Something about this became extremely pivotal to my mental state, and I kept chopping and chopping causing the trees to shake.
I’d later find out that Cultivation Wood were trees with heart cores that also cultivated. Once they reached the 9th Heavenly Stage they could eventually turn into humans! However, I learned this after chopping down quite a few of them, causing the tree gods to get mad at me and sent hunters to kill me.
Of course, the entire time, I focused on the Seven Paths of Heavenly Body and began to finally comprehend the 11th page! My dantian, this little pretty thing in my chest that stored my energy, started to spin quicker and quicker as it consolidated the Qi in the air around me!
It turned out the thing that made me so strong was that Qi! Unfortunately, no matter how much of it I sucked up, I seemed like a hungry beast hoping to devour the universe. After an hour of chopping wood, and becoming one with nature, I leveled up to the 3rd Heavenly Stage, and left the entire Cultivation Forest in a pile of ruin!
Of course, I wouldn’t dare chop down the normal trees, and by the time I got to Jay’s tree she seemed to be having some sort of insight. I left her there with her special tree, the one that had gotten away, and heard the final trees fall.
It sounded like true beautiful women were crying, and I mourned the trees before finding Apple gamboling along a lake by the Sect, killing anything she saw with the biggest smile on her face.
“We are finally making a home for ourselves.” I told her, smiling at her. “Unfortunately, the first mission I did left a nasty feeling in my stomach. I feel like someone or something is out to get me.”
“Is it me?” Apple answered, eating a rabbit. “I’d kill you, but you take to long to finish off.”
“No, you’re just a little bird. I have bigger things to worry about!”
“You mean like the mountain behind you?”
“How do you know about Lord Mountain?!” My secret had gotten out. “Did you tell anyone! Do Jay and Goro know?”
“Are you kidding me?! Why would I tell on you…”
“Oh, thank you Apple.” I noticed a shadow draping over my body.
“Yup, have fun with the Tree Mountain behind you! He looks like he’s angry!”
“Oh, that’s just an illusion. I left the past behind me.” I replied, looking into her eyes.
“Okay, I believe you.” She rolled her eyes, and smiled happily. Was she thinking about how I was about to die! I would never die!
*Boom!*
Some sort of tremendous force crashed into my head and sent me deep into the ground. So deep that I saw a few snakes coiled up and eating rabbits. So animals down here had found happiness! Regardless, a hand delightfully pulled me back up to the surface, and me and some strange being made contact.
“Hello! You seem friendly!” The best way of stopping aggression is by making friends!
“I’m here to kill you! Any last words!”
“I’m not easy to kill! You should ask Apple!” Kind words for a big opponent.
“I’m one thousand times bigger than you!”
“At least!”
“You cut down my mother!”
“Cut her in half!” I figured he came from a tree!
“Burn in hell!”
“You first!” Such a sweet talker, this tree. Right then, I knew we’d become destined for a long friendship. Taking my one-thousand-pound saber out of the sheath I stole from a dead body, I lashed out as it’s fist burst through the air and started burning!
I had no choice but to activate the first layer of the Seven Paths of the Heavenly Body and use Master of the Stars to make my friendship with this fiend! The two blows connected, then another ten, then twenty and forty blows were swiftly dealt!
I felt like I was playing Pattie Cake! It was not a sport I wanted to lose!
Unfortunately, as I glanced backward at Apple, she smiled at me causing me to get hit in the head. On our 104th strike, I’d been cheap shot, remembering it in my skull, before I burst out of the ground and attempted to reconcile our differences!
“You’re my friend! Get it in your head!”
“You killed my mother! Stop fighting back and die!”
“Do you want me to help you Tree?” Apple joined in. “I don’t want his death to hurt.”
“Never! You’re the reason he’s here Apple!”
“How do you know my name?” Apple looked confused. “Did someone tell you!”
“Gregory just shouted it! His name is on the poster!”
“You’re a smart cookie.” I said, interrupting their chatter. “Too bad cookies need to be cooked to taste good!” Boo yah! Hole in one!
Boom!
I comprenhended something big and bad, something allowing my power to soar, and hit Tree on the hand. His wood knees buckled, and he fell towards the floor. I didn’t hit to kill because it was hard to find such durable, tall friends.
However, I did put my sword on his neck to make it official. The entire time of the battle, I’d been hopping off the ground, and developed a technique called the grasshopper. If you put your energy into your legs, you could rapidly jump up and down.
Some people called it jumping, but I called it being one with nature!
Tree, unfortunately, began crying and smashed the ground. “You killed my mother! She’s level 8, and almost level 9! If I had a little more strength, you’d be dead!”
“You’d need a lot more strength Tree! He’d been playing Pattie Cake with you.” Apple patted him on the shoulder. “We can try again another time.”
“You… you two are weird. I have to go burry my mother. She’s been uprooted, and is on her last breath.”
“You know I left one tree remaining right! I’m sure it’s your mother!” I had a feeling, trusting my instincts, but Tree didn’t seem to care.
“Nonsense! The odds are 1 in 10001! What are the chances? Curse you for making me weak Lord Mountain!”
“Wait, is that mountain alive?!” I know understood the root of my problem. “Is it the reason I’m cursed?! It’s definitely the mountain, right?”
“No, you idiot! You aren’t cursed. Just facing tribulations.” Tee tee acted smart, but I believed my own lies.
Jay, on the other hand, stopped patting the tree as Mountain approached. He bent over, feeling the tree, before a smile appeared on his face.
Of course, I was certain that wasn’t his mother, but how could he possibly differentiate them.